ICOM Simulations, Inc. (later known as Rabid Entertainment) was a software company based in Wheeling, Illinois. It is best known for creating the MacVenture series of

adventure games An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based me ...

including '' Shadowgate''. Following the foundation in 1981 a number of game titles for the

Panasonic JR-200 The Panasonic JR-200 (Panasonic Personal Computer (PPC)) was a simple, relatively early (1983), 8-bit home computer with a chiclet keyboard somewhat similar to the VTech Laser 200. It's part of the JR Series. Made of silver grey plastic, it ha ...

were produced. Later products for the Apple Macintosh included the debugger TMON and an application launching utility called ''OnCue''.

History

ICOM Simulations was formed as TMQ Software on March 4, 1981, by Tod Zipnick. With the MacVenture series, ICOM pioneered the point-and-click adventure interface and later

multiplatform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...

CD-ROM development with '' Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective''. Zipnick died of

Hodgkin's disease Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma, in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the patient's lymph nodes. The condition wa ...

in 1991 just as the company was beginning to take off. In the early-to-mid 1990s, ICOM Simulations was a major third-party developer for the TurboGrafx-16 (TG-16) platform in the US. They produced many games for the console, including the TG-16 exclusive ''Shadowgate'' sequel, ''

Beyond Shadowgate ''Beyond Shadowgate'' is a TurboGrafx CD sequel to the 1987 Mac and MacVenture game ''Shadowgate''. Unlike its predecessor, ''Beyond Shadowgate'' is a classical point-and-click adventure viewed from a platform perspective. A 14 by 19 inch po ...

''. The company was acquired in 1993 by

Viacom New Media Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

which closed its operations in 1997. Renamed to Rabid Entertainment, VNM/ICOM was dismantled in 1998. The rights to ICOM's game portfolio were held by the company Infinite Ventures, but they are now owned by David Marsh who obtained most of the rights in January 2012. On March 5, 2012,

Dave Marsh Dave Marsh (born March 1, 1950) is an American music critic, and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of ''Creem'' magazine, has written for various publications such as ''Newsday'', ''The Village Voice'', and ''Rolling Stone (magazine), ...

and

Karl Roelofs Karl Roelofs (born September 11, 1964) is an American video game developer known for creating the MacVenture game ''Shadowgate''. He is a co-founder of the video game development company Zojoi, LLC with Dave Marsh. Biography ICOM Simulation ...

, both former developers at ICOM Simulations, formed a new game development company called Zojoi, LLC, and have begun releasing upgraded versions of previous ICOM Simulations titles, starting with '' Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective'' for iOS Tablets.

Games

References

External links

ICOM Simulations
at

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{{Authority control Companies based in Cook County, Illinois Software companies established in 1980 Software companies disestablished in 1998 Defunct companies based in Illinois Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct video game companies of the United States Software companies based in Illinois

History

Games

See also

References

External links